Kinlight · The British Royal Line

King Aethelred II The Unready

966 – 1016 · Generation V · King of the English (r. 978–1016) · House of Wessex

Portrait of King Aethelred II The Unready

Æthelred II the Unready (966–1016). King of the English (r. 978–1016). Married Ælfgifu of York in 985. Married Emma of Normandy in 1002. His byname means “ill-advised” — a pun on his given name, “noble counsel.” He was a child when his half-brother’s murder brought him the crown — too young for suspicion to touch him — and the Viking threat, dormant for a generation, soon returned. Seldom able to beat the raiders in the field, king and council paid them to leave; in 1002 he ordered the St Brice’s Day massacre of Danes, which historians read as a mark of his growing paranoia. In 1013 Swein Forkbeard of Denmark conquered England and Æthelred fled to Normandy, only to be recalled on Swein’s death the next year, driving out the young Cnut. His last years were poisoned by the treachery of Eadric Streona and by mistrust between the king and his son Edmund Ironside. Yet the 990s brought advisers of real quality and a flowering of Latin and English writing, and recent historians have softened the old verdict of simple failure.

One of 21 people of House of Wessex (until 1093) in this archive. Alfred’s line: kings of Wessex who became the first kings of all England.

Line of descent: King Alfred the Great → King Edward The Elder → King Edmund → King Edgar → King Aethelred II The Unready.

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Life

  • 966 — Born
  • 978 — Aethelred, son of Edgar, becomes King of England following the murder of his half brother Edward
  • 985 — Married Ælfgifu of York
  • 991 — Battle of Maldon: Byrhtnoth of Essex is defeated by Danish invaders; Aethelred buys off the Danes with 10,000 pounds of silver (Danegeld)
  • 992 — Aethelred makes a truce with Duke Richard I of Normandy
  • 994 — Danes under Sweyn and Norwegians under Olaf Trygvesson sail up river Thames and besiege London; bought off by Aethelred
  • 1002 — Married Emma of Normandy
  • 1002 — Aethelred orders a massacre of Danish settlers. After the death of his first wife Elfleda he marries Emma of Normandy
  • 1013 — King Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark lands in England and is proclaimed king; Aethelred II the Unready flees to Normandy
  • 1014 — The English recall Aethelred II the Unready as King on the death of Sweyn at Gainsborough
  • 1016 — Died

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